1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is generally directed to child car seats or safety seats, and more particularly to a child car seat with side impact protection zones.
2. Description of Related Art
Child car seats and safety seats known in the art and are intended to help protect a child that is seated in the seat during a crash of the vehicle. Such car seats typically do so by restraining the child in the seat during the crash. Some car seats also absorb some of the energy of the impact to further protect or insulate the child.
Side impact crashes can be particularly problematic for all vehicle occupants, including for children seated in a child car seat or safety seat. During a side impact crash, the child's head can move violently sideways, which may cause their head to impact with the sides or side wings of the car seat. Some child car seats have attempted to address this problem by employing pads or additional cushioning in these side impact zones of the seat.
Dorel/Cosco has offered for sale a child car seat with what they call the AIRPROTECT feature. This feature includes an air bladder structure added to each side wing of the seat. The air bladders function similar to a whoopee cushion in that, upon impact, air will escape the interior of the air bladders in a relatively controlled manner The air flow is controlled so as to slow the deflation of the air bladder during an impact. The AIRPROTECT product structure has enclosed urethane foam inside the ported air bladders to absorb energy. However, when a large or great impact force is applied, the air bladder and foam bottom out against the hard plastic or other surface of the seat shell or headrest shell. This may cause an undesirable sudden deceleration of the child's head and potentially increase the risk of injury to the child.
EVENFLO has provided children's car seats with what they call “E3 Technology” to address side impact issues. The “E3 Technology” is said to expand the surface area of the impact zones on the car seat for better protection. The “E3 Technology” is also said to incorporate a three-layer foam material to absorb impact forces more efficiently than other known solutions. BRITAX has provided children's car seats with what they call “True Side Impact Technology” to address side impact issues. The “True Side Impact Technology” is said to incorporate deeper side walls on the seat and energy absorbing foam directly over the hard plastic surfaces of both the seat and the headrest. The deeper side walls are said to provide greater surface area for the side impact zone foam protection and the foam is said to absorb energy during impact.
All of the aforementioned solutions either provide only limited improvement to side impact zone protection, are costly to manufacture and implement, or both. Some solutions still result in the seat occupant's head ultimately bottoming out against a hard, unforgiving surface of the seat structure. Alternatively, some solutions are cost prohibitive and structurally complex so as to affect cost competitiveness of the car seat in the marketplace.